Sgt Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, died Saturday during a controlled detonation of a downed Iranian drone at Erbil airbase in northern Iraq, the Pentagon announced Tuesday.
The Army soldier was supporting overseas contingency operations when the blast occurred while personnel were destroying unexploded ordnance from the Iranian one-way attack drone. Another service member suffered a minor injury in the same incident.
Swinton enlisted in 2017 as an air defense early warning system operator and was assigned to the Army's air and missile defense command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Brig Gen John L Dawber, commanding general of the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command, described him as an experienced noncommissioned officer who approached his duties with pride and dedication.
His death marks the latest in an escalating toll from the conflict that began in February with US military strikes on Iranian military and nuclear infrastructure. The Pentagon identified two other soldiers killed in recent days: First Lt Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Pvt Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, both killed in Jordan while defending against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks.
The total count of US service personnel killed in the war now stands at 17. Hundreds more have been wounded, with nearly 100 injured over the past two weeks alone following a surge in Iranian reprisal raids.
Swinton's widow, Mia Gonzalez-Swinton, posted on Facebook Sunday that she had learned of her husband's death that morning. In a brief statement accompanying a photograph of Swinton with a young girl, she wrote: "I didn't think this would be the last time I ever saw you. I have no words."
Author James Rodriguez: "The loss keeps mounting in a conflict that shows no signs of slowing, and the human cost keeps becoming more real with each name and each widow's message."
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